Psalms 87
:7

Psalms 87 :7
Translations

King James Version (KJV)

As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in you.

American King James Version (AKJV)

As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in you.

American Standard Version (ASV)

They that sing as well as they that dance'shall say , All my fountains are in thee.

Basic English Translation (BBE)

The players on instruments will be there, and the dancers will say, All my springs are in you.

Webster's Revision

As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.

World English Bible

Those who sing as well as those who dance say, "All my springs are in you." A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "The Suffering of Affliction." A contemplation by Heman, the Ezrahite.

English Revised Version (ERV)

They that sing as well as they that dance shall say, All my fountains are in thee.

Definitions for Psalms 87
:7

Clarke's Commentary
on Psalms 87 :7

As well the singers, etc. - Perhaps, this may mean no more than, The burden of the songs of all the singers and choristers shall be, "All my fountains (ancestors and posterity) are in thee;" and consequently, entitled to all thy privileges and immunities. Instead of שרים sharim, "singers," many MSS. and early printed editions have, sarim, "princes." Some for מעיני mayenai, "my fountains," would read with several of the Versions, מעוני meoney, "habitations;" but no MS. yet discovered supports this reading.

It would be a very natural cause of exultation, when considering the great privileges of this royal city, to know that all his friends, family, and children, were citizens of this city, were entered in God's register, and were entitled to his protection and favor. Applied to the Christian Church, the privileges are still higher: born of God, enrolled among the living in Jerusalem, having their hearts purified by faith, and being washed and made clean through the blood of the covenant, and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, such have a right to the inheritance among the saints in light. I need not add that springs, wells, fountains, and cisterns, and waters are used metaphorically in the sacred writings for children, posterity, fruitful women, people, etc.; see among others Proverbs 5:15, Proverbs 5:16; Psalm 68:26; Isaiah 48:1; and Revelation 17:15. The old Psalter understands the whole as relating to Gospel times; and interprets it accordingly. Bishop Horne takes it in the same sense. The whole Psalm is obscure and difficult. I will venture a literal version of the whole, with a few explanatory interpolations, instead of notes, in order to cast a little more light upon it.

1. A Psalm to be sung by the posterity of Korah. A prophetic song.

2. "Jehovah loves his foundation, the city built by him on holy mountains. He loves the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of Jacob."

3. "Honorable things are declared of thee, O city of God. Selah."

4. "I will number Egypt and Babylon among my worshippers; behold Philistia and Tyre! They shall be born in the same place." They shall be considered as born in the city of God.

5. "But of Zion it shall be said, This one, and that one," persons of different nations, "was born in it, and the Most High shall establish it."

6. "Jehovah shall reckon in the registers of the people, This one was born there."

7. "The people shall sing, as in leading up a choir, All my fountains," the springs of my happiness, "are in thee."

I have nearly followed here the version of Mr. N. M. Berlin, who wonders that there should be any doubt concerning this translation of the last verse, when Symmachus and Aguila, who must have well known the sense of the Masoretic text, have translated: Και ᾳδοντης ῳς χοροι πασαι πηγαι εν σοι· "And they shall sing, as in leading up a dance, All my fountains are in thee." The translation cannot be far from the meaning.

Barnes's Commentary
on Psalms 87 :7

As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there - literally, "The singers as the players on instruments." The image is that of a musical procession, where the singers go before, followed by those who play on various instruments of music. The idea seems to be that when the number of the true friends of God shall be made up, or shall all be enrolled, there will be a triumphal procession; or, they are seen by the psalmist, moving before God as in a triumphal procession. Compare the notes at Isaiah 35:10. Perhaps the reference is to heaven - the true Zion; to the assembling of all who shall have been born in Zion, and who shall have become citizens of the true Zion, the Jerusalem above.

All my springs are in thee - The word rendered springs means properly a place of fountains (see the notes at Psalm 84:6), and also a fountain, Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2. It thus becomes an emblem of happiness; of delight; of pleasure; and the ideal here is that the highest happiness of the psalmist was found in what is here referred to by the word "thee." That word may refer either to God or to Zion; but as the subject of the psalm is Zion, it is most natural to suppose that the reference is to that. Thus it accords with the sentiment so often found in the Psalms, where the writer expresses his love for Zion; his pleasure in its solemnities; his desire to abide there as his permanent home. Compare Psalm 23:6; Psalm 84:2-4, Psalm 84:10. The idea has been beautifully expressed by Dr. Dwight, in his version of Psalm 137:6 :